1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of carpet and floor cleaning implements. More particularly, it pertains to an electric powered tool for removing deposits of chewing gum and other sticky deposits from carpets and floors such as is encountered in movie theaters, restaurants and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
In movie theaters, hotels, restaurants, night clubs and other such places where the public congregate, it is common to see places where chewing gum and other sticky substances have been dropped onto the carpet and "walked" into the nap. Despite best efforts and good manners, people spill and drop things and, before they can be picked up or wiped up, other people either purposely or by accident step on the deposit resulting in spreading it outward and driving it into the nap of the carpet or over the surface of tile or linoleum floors. While this may be a nuisance to some, to the owners and proprietors of such places such is a far more serious problem. Without removing the deposit, the carpet will rapidly deteriorate as the substance accretes other dirt and debris that will cut or break carpet backing the longer it is walked upon. Carpeting represents a sizeable capital investment and its repair or replacement can represent an unwanted cost of operation.
There currently is no powered device for removing these deposits, The present practice for removing gum deposits from carpets is to pour a small amount of liquid gum remover or other solubilizing liquid onto the deposit and scratch the gum with a hooked instrument, such as a crocheting needle, to pull the nap up through the deposit while attempting to pull small chunks of the gum off the carpet. This process is very inefficient, is timed-consuming, and if attempted where a mass of people will soon pass by, such as when a movie theater lets out, could result in personal injury if someone trips over the worker. Some effort has been made to use a stiff brush but this has generally been found unsatisfactory because maneuvering the brush in back and forth strokes often spreads the size of the deposit and is otherwise just plain hard work.
There are devices in the prior art that appear useful in removing these deposits, however, upon closer examination they prove to be inadequate to do the job. U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,570 discloses a power brush apparatus comprising an elongated body with a rotating brush set at an angle at one end and a handle set at an angle at the other end including a trigger to allow water from a hose that is connected to the handle to pass down through the body and out the brush while driving the brush in rotary motion. A continuous flow of water would be required to keep the brush turning that would soon spread the wash zone of the chewing gum deposit to an undesirable size. The rotating brush is set at an angle to the handle and this would make it awkward to apply pressure to the brush against the deposit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,753 discloses a floor cleaning apparatus including an elongated angled body with a handle on the top end and a rotating brush at the other end driven by an electric motor mounted on the body. A reservoir containing liquid gum remover is attached to the body and includes a trigger near the handle for charging a quantity of fluid from the reservoir along a conduit to the brush area. This device is designed especially to shampoo corners of wall-to-wall carpeting and the brush is pointed at the end to allow it to get into these tight corners. Attempts to use this brush on an open flat carpet surface would be difficult as the spinning brush would "walk" the device beyond the deposit thus failing to confine the sticky deposit to a smaller area.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,166,482 discloses a small, hand-held device powered by a spring motor at one end having a round end brush protruding from the other end and an internal reservoir of soap or other surface treating medium arranged to sculpt pieces of the medium and pass it down to the brush. While this device is usable to treat various surfaces, the round bottom brush will not provide uniform cleaning to the deposit and more pressure on the brush will cause injury to the carpet nap. In addition, the small size would require the user to squat beside the deposit which can pose a traffic hazard. To increase the size of the unit would make it top heavy as the heavy motor is at the top end and this would render it awkward to use.
What is needed therefore is a device that is able to confine the washing of the carpet to a small area so as to prevent the liquid and the gum from being moved out over other carpeting, a device that could easily be used to apply pressure directly to the deposit, but not too much pressure so as to drive the brush too deep into the nap and damage the nap or backing, and a device that may be applied directly to the deposit while standing up and in a manner that direct pressure could be applied to the deposit without having the unit squirm out from under the operator.